Conscription
by dovakhin95
Summary: dragged away from everything he cares about, broken, beaten and bruised how will duke cope with his new found destiny now that he's been conscripted into the army (set in medieval times)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1-conscription**

It was a warm afternoon the sun was beaming down over the golden fields of wheat and a gentle breeze flowed through the valley.

"Duke have you taken the miltank out to pasture," came a deep voice from outside the dark dingy barn.

The doors burst open and a teenage boy walked out of the barn long ginger hair messily growing on his head a bucket of slops in his hand "yes pa' ive just gotta feed the pigs and then all of my chores for today are finished." Replied duke walking towards a fenced off area full of piglets and one giant mother pig.

"Okay lad, got any plans for later?" Asked the older man adjusting his grey farmer's cap.

"I think I may go on a picnic with astrid, if thats okay with you," said duke upturning his bucket over the trough releasing its grey lumpy contents with a plop "meal time you little piggies," and with his call an army of pink ran over to the trough.

"Astrid? The smithyys girl, 'course you can," chuckled the old man taking the bucket from the boys hand.

"Okay you go freshen up, I'll finish up here for ya you've worked harder than any of your younger brothers and sisters,"

"Thanks pa ill be back around 8 'kay," replied the boy heading towards a small cottage with smoke rising from a small chimney on its grey shingled roof that had moss growing between the stones and a nest of pidgey on top demanding more regurgitated caterpie from their tired pidgeot mother.

Duke opened the door and was greeted by his mother who chucked him a clean red tunic "im guessing you're going to see astrid again," sighed his mother as duke took his old tunic off and tossed in the washing basket and putting his new tunic on tightening it around his waist with a piece of small rope. "yup ima go take her on a picnic in the clearing by the lake," said duke as he scooped up some water from the bucket on the table and rubbed it over his face. "oh i remember when your farther used to be a hopeless romantic,"

"Pa'? romantic? what happened," asked duke confused

"we had you lot now get out of here before i find something else for you to do," chuckled his mother handing the redheaded boy a picnic basket full of he had prepared himself earlier.

Duke walked through the town the wind blowing through his ginger hair a goofy smile on his face as he walked down a dirt path with market stalls either side of him selling a range of wares from tauros leathers and lairon plates to apples and pears he picked up a single red rose from a stall and handed the small girl on the stall a copper piece saying thankyou while he did so he sniffed the rose while he walked past the old buildings and market stalls the smell of waste both human and pokemon being masked by the rose. He carried on walking until he reached a building at the end of the street with a huge fire pit outside accompanied by an equally large water bath and a very large burly man hammering away at a sword on an anvil sweat dripping down his brow as he worked on a fine blade that had a golden tinge to it. "Astrid's in the shop boy, have her back by 10 and don't try anything with her or i'll be forced to test my wares on you," came a rough voice between blows of the metal hammer on the sword blade. "yes, sir i will keep her safe as always," squeaked duke feeling slightly intimidated by the man's aggressive tone as he walked through the door to the blacksmith's shop.

On the wall's there was a variety of finely crafted weapons and armor pieces such as swords, shields, maces and many others and to the right of him there was a counter that had a list of prices for the weapons and a book to register all of the orders made during the day. but duke was not paying attention to any of them behind the counter was the most beautiful girl duke had ever seen (well at least in dukes opinion). she had long flowing gold hair as bright as the sun and silky to the touch. her skin was pale with rosy red cheeks and marked with freckles around her nose and over her forehead. she was a tall girl who was very muscular like her father and she was adorned in a red dress that was hidden under a brown leather apron she had deep brown eyes and a large crooked smile but duke only saw only the most perfect smile in the world. "hey astrid i saw this rose and thought of you," said duke handing astrid the flower causing her to blush slightly "come ere ya big ponce gis a hug," said astrid her strong accent showing through as she put the rose in a vase of flowers that was on the counter and picked duke up in a crushing hug "you ready to get going then, astrid" asked duke trying to breath through his crushed lungs

"yeah, just let me close up here," said astrid heading back behind the counter and locking up various chests and containers while duke snook outside.

5 minutes later astrid walked out of the door closing it behind her, no longer wearing her big brown apron revealing a big jasmine brooch fastened on her chest. It was the last thing she had to remember her mother by since she was taken by small pox when she was 5. Duke would often catch astrid staring at the brooch and crying then he would just hold her until she stopped. "okay its 4 now so i reckon that gives us 4 hours and i know somewhere that we can go," exclaimed duke starting to walk off purposefully. "but that's only 8 i don't have to be home until 10," moaned astrid childishly as she followed after duke. "i know but ive got something i gotta do," sighed duke taking astrid's hand.

The pair carried on walking and chatting like that for about half an hour when they reached a clearing in the trees with a beautiful river running through the middle the sun sparkling over the surface a lone goldeen sticking it head out of the water gasping for air and a family of oddish hiding in the brush revealing nothing but the top of their blue heads and there green leaves rustling in the wind. "right here we are i found this beautiful spot yesterday," said duke opening the picnic basket and putting down a checkered picnic blanket "are you sure this spot is safe I still don't feel comfortable around pokemon no matter how much you insist they won't hurt me," questioned astrid sitting down on the blanket and tucking a wisp of loose hair behind her ear. " Trust me they won't come within 5 metres of us I made sure to check the area the most dangerous thing is a family of squirtle and they aren't old enough to be dangerous," exclaimed duke comfortingly pulling out some sandwiches and a large cake covered in sugar. "Thats a lot of expensive food duke how did you afford it all," asked astrid picking up a pork sandwich and taking a large bite. "I did a few jobs for the butchers and the bakers and they payed me in these so I could make today as special as possible for the girl I love." Replied duke blushing a little when he made the last comment, causing astrid's cheeks to glow red too."I love you too duke," said astrid placing a kiss on dukes lips .

The two sat there for two hours eating, talking, having a joke and generally enjoying each others company. And the oddish filled the air with a sweet aroma the scent being carried by the breeze that was carving its way through the clearing and the sky was turned a range of the most beautiful colours from orange to purple by the setting sun. A perfect evening in the summer of dukes dreams. All of a sudden duke got up to one knee this was the perfect moment he had been waiting for he felt the butterflies in his stomach 5 times worse than he ever had before but he ignored them. "Astrid in this world we never know when we're going to die there's constant wars, famine and illness but despite all of that the world has given me the most beautiful girlfriend in the world and no matter how much longer I have left in this world be it 1 day or 100 years I want to spend them with you. Astrid will you marry me?" Exclaimed duke pulling out a ring from his pocket with a small emerald on top. "Of course ill marry ya, ya big ponce!" Replied astrid allowing duke to slide the ring onto her finger and then laying a massive kiss on his lips. "But does my father know?" asked astrid when she finally stopped kissing duke so she could take a breath." Yeah, I asked for his blessing while you were getting ready to go out," replied duke.."i'm so happy right now duke I don't think anything could ruin my mood right now," stated astrid her head on duke's shoulder and his arm around hers. "Miiiiilllltaaaaank!" Came a voice from behind them and a large pink cow walked out of the bushes. "Daisy what are you doing here I thought you were meant to be in the barn well I had better take you back," said duke rising from his perch next to the tree and uprooting astrid firm her place of comfort. "I'm coming too," moaned astrid getting up from the ground.

The walk back to town took duke, astrid and daisy 30 minutes and when they arrived there were a lot of wagons with the sigil of lord drakebane the man who managed to kill the charizard that was terrorizing dukes village before he was born.

"Whats going on here," asked astrid looking at the carts and seeing mainly boys around duke's age all in the carts looking sad, scared or angry. "It look's like another conscription into the king's army quickly back into the woods before they notice me," whispered duke in a panicked tone. "You there stop in the name of lord drakebane!" Came a voice from behind duke causing him to stop and turn towards the owner of the voice and he saw a large man twice as large as any he had ever seen before covered head to toe in heavy plate mail with a greatsword in one hand and a giant steel maul in the other behind him ran a smaller man covered in leather armor with a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back the second had sharp angular almost fox like features compared to the first who looked like the last remaining member of the neanderthals, both men were eyeing the miltank between them and the boy both of their white cloaks flowing in the wind making the black charizard emblazoned onto them look like they were taking flight.

"Today's your lucky day boy, you have the honour of joining lord drakebane's illustrious army now be a good little boy and call of your friend here," spat the fox faced man still being cautious of daisy. "You don't like pokemon huh, let me go and she won't even make a move towards you," replied duke putting a hand on daisy's back to calm the bovine. "Sorry, our orders were to take everyone we saw and we've seen you now so come with me lad before you do something you'll regret," said the bigger of the two men in a surprisingly quiet voice. "Im not going with you! Daisy rollout!" Shouted duke causing the big cow to start rolling on the spot a layer of dirt gathering all over her body until she looked like a boulder then all of a sudden she shot forwards towards the two men causing the fox faced man to roll out of the way as the large hulk of man braced for impact. The huge boulder crashed into the man causing him to grunt with exertion as his armor dented and a shower of sparks filled the air from where the boulder was grinding against the metal. The larger man let out a large grunt as he lifted the spinning boulder off of the ground and chucked it against a nearby tree causing chunks of earth and splinters of wood to be sent flying leaving an unconscious cow and duke frozen with fear. "Kill that fucking cow now before it gets back up!" Boomed the larger man breathing heavily holding himself up with his hammer and handing his greatsword to the fox faced man who had to carry it in two hands. The fox faced man started walking over towards daisy who was slowly recovering from her collision with the tree.

Duke watched in horror as fox face made his way towards the pokemon he had hatched from an egg, he had raised her from a calf into the pokemon she was now, and it could all be over he had to stop them. "Stop, dont hurt her ill join the army," sighed duke looking at astrid who was silent a look of terror on her face, tears rolling down her cheeks "duke you can't, what if I never see you again?" Croaked astrid barely audible.

"I have to astrid I can't let them hurt daisy," replied duke grabbing astrid around the waist and pulling her close" go home astrid, go home and do me one favour tell my family what happened and tell them I love them and remember I will always love you," cried duke trying but failing to hold back the tears.

"There was that so difficult now into the back that cart over there and your cow is free to go," chuckled the fox faced man gesturing towards a cart with a mysterious robed figure who wasn't even paying attention to the scene that was occurring behind them. Duke started towards the cart not looking back towards his lover blocking out her screams of "no!" And "don't leave," lest he change his mind.

"Im not letting that cow get away with injuring me if you won't kill it I will," boomed the goliath of a man grabbing the sword out of fox faces hand and raising it above his head . Duke broke out of his silent stupor running between daisy and the goliath "move, kid!" Yelled the giant man the moon's light glinted off of the sharp blade of the greatsword and duke realised he couldn't even slow the man down if he got angry enough but yet he didn't move and he was going to defend daisy. "Fine I'll move you then," boomed the goliath before punching duke in the side of his head. Duke landed on his side finding himself unable to move, daisy was in his view and he felt himself slipping out of consciousness the blade rose as his vision started to fade it fell and a spray of blood filled the air he felt some warm splashes on his face as his vision faded more and daisies head rolled right in front of his head and the last thing he saw was her cold dead eyes before he finally lost consciousness and was greeted by blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

**conscription-chapter 2**

there was a low rumble of a cart and the sky was grey, little droplets of water falling down onto the passengers in the convoy causing discomfort for most of the people there and decreasing the generally low morale further. one of the carts went over a pothole in the dirt road creating a loud bang and jolting duke out of his unconscious state. Duke let out a loud groan as he rubbed his head his hands going through his hair feeling all of the sweat, grease and blood in the birdsnest of ginger on his head. He took in a deep breath and looked at his surroundings his face darkening as he realised he hadn't just woken up after a nightmare and the events of last night really happened and the bastard responsible for killing one of his best friends was sitting to the right of him, his chainmail damaged revealing a nasty looking wound on his hip bringing duke a brief moment of happiness amongst his grief.

"Oh our feisty little friend is awake," chuckled fox face stirring the goliath from his trance.

"Morning sleeping beauty no hard feelings about the whole killing your pokemon thing right!" Boomed the goliath causing dukes head to pound even more than it already was.

"Fuck off you fat bastard," spat duke glaring at the giant sat next to him.

"Hey mind your language boy i said no hard feelings," boomed the goliath again trying to intimidate duke.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO HARD FEELINGS YOU KILLED THE POKEMON THAT I HAD RAISED FROM A CALF, TOOK ME AWAY FROM MY FAMILY HOME WHERE I WAS HAPPY AND WORST OF ALL YOU DRAGGED ME AWAY FROM MY FIANCE SO AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED YES THERE ARE VERY HARD FEELINGS!" shouted duke before head butting the goliath and causing blood to trail out of his nose."hahahahahaha," echoed the goliath surprising duke who was expecting him to hit him back "After all of that you've still got some fight in ya we'll make a soldier out of you yet lad,"chuckled the goliath taking a handkerchief and wiping up the blood. "You're taking being hit in the face very well you've killed men for doing less to you," remarked the fox faced man "he shows potential and don't worry he hasn't got away with it i'm gonna make his life hell in training," said the goliath sized man cryptically smiling making duke feel nervous.

"i've just realised in all of this we haven't given our names to the lad nor him to us," stated fox face a smile still plastered on his face from ear to ear.

"well i'll go first i am grawon bearclaw," boomed the goliath his face twisting into something that looked like a failed attempt of a smile

"and i'm rusgon frosthide," said the fox faced man holding his hand out towards duke causing duke to take it and shake it out of courtesy instead of actually respecting rusgon.

"i'm duke ," spat duke looking at the forest both in front of him and behind him seeing a big green oak tree with mature looking kakuna hanging from the branches causing panic to spread through his body. "what's wrong kid you look like you're about to shit yourself," laughed grawon loudly.

"could we just get out of here quickly those kakuna look ready to evolve and i don't want to be around when they do," whispered duke nervously.

"what you're scared of little bugs," laughed grawon deeply making dukes nerves grow.

"it's not the kakuna that scare it's the swarm of human sized beedrill that follow the annual mass evolution." replied duke trying his best not to look at the kakuna.

"these beedrill will evolve 3 days from now so don't worry," murmured the cloaked figure sitting next to duke surprising him as this was the first time they had spoken to him.

"oh she's at it again," sighed rusgon rolling his eyes and causing grawon to chuckle.

"duke this is thiassel the lord's master of psychics i think all of her predictions are lucky bullshit but lord drakebane thinks that she may actually be able to see the future." complained rusgon giving thiassel a dirty look.

"it's a pleasure to meet you duke i know that you have been taken from your family and lover but i sense that you will have a great part to play in the fate of the world," hummed thiassel in a monotone voice that sounded almost inhuman. "how so?" asked duke surprised by her prediction.

"it is unclear to me at this point but one thing is certain to me you will have a great task but you will not have to face it alone a fellowship of people from far and wide will be there right by your side," hummed thiassel again the hood on her dark robe being blown down by the wind to reveal a woman with bright blue hair and pale skin marked with acne scars, her eyes were big and mismatched one of them being a beautiful deep blue and the other being a mystifying emerald green. Duke stared in disbelief at thiassel's strange appearance causing her to look uncomfortable and pull her hood back up over her head.

"Don't believe her bullshit, you won't save the world, you'll be lucky if you survive training especially now that you are stuck with grawon," chuckled rusgon causing thiassel to glare at him and grawon to let out a large hearty chuckle.

the convoy carried on along the road for another 30 minutes grawon and rusgon having a loud conversation and sending loud laughs echoing through the hills while duke and thiassel sat there in silence duke answering the odd question asked by rusgon, grawon and very rarely thiassel.

"good news kid we're nearly there," boomed grawon just as the cart went over the top of a steep hill to reveal a giant grey structure carving through the hillside. it had a massive metal gate that was raised as well as a big wooden drawbridge and crenellations across the top of it all around the grey structures stood massive towers standing tall like trees made out of stone there were archers stationed along all of the walls and huge catapults scattered around the towers. Duke hadn't ever seen anything so big and he couldn't help but let out a gasp of amazement causing rusgon, grawon and thiassel to laugh. "that's how most people react when they first see drakebane keep me included," chuckled thiassel.

"holy arceus how did humans build something so big i thought this would only be capable of something like regigigas,"gasped duke trying to count the number of towers and wondering how they managed to carry the heavy bricks to the top of the towers.

"you don't keep to the pokemon gods do you?" asked rusgon sighing

"yeah i do, is that gonna be a problem?" asked duke also sighing as he realised rusgon was another person who viewed him as a heretic.

"He doesn't like us, he regards us as a crazy cult," spat thiassel a sharpness to her voice giving rusgon a dirty look.

"hey if you want to worship a bunch of stupid animals that's fine by me but please do it when i'm not around," chuckled rusgon receiving more dirty looks from duke and thiassel making him laugh even louder.

"what gods do you worship then duke?" asked thiassel

"i'm part of the church of arceus, the church of regigigas,the church of xerneas, the church of the three birds," stated duke

"the church of xerneas, i thought that only existed in kalos and the east of hoenn," questioned thiassel.

"my grandparents were from kalos but they left after their home was destroyed during the battle of geosenge but they built a shrine to xerneas in the farm and we carried on praying to xerneas for a successful crop growth and successful animal births and so far we haven't failed once," exclaimed duke his mood slightly increasing although his head still hadn't stopped pounding.

Duke and thiassel carried on talking for 10 more minutes while the wagon got closer to drakebane keep until eventually they made it to the gate and stopped in the middle of a courtyard. the gigantic grey stone walls stood around the courtyard casting a giant shadow over 1 half of the gravel on the floor. guards clad in the same armor that grawon was wearing when he killed daisy.

"Fine Young men from various towns and villages around kanto," came a large voice causing everyone to turn their heads towards a man who was 6 foot 3 inches tall with dark black hair and wearing red silken clothes, a rapier strapped to his waist barely visible apart from a small glint of sunlight reflecting off of its handguard.

"i am lord drakebane and you young men have been selected to join my army and leave behind your peasant lives, some of you may have been taken against your will and some of you will have left family behind, but remember you are now part of my army and there are only 2 ways to get back to them either go back after 20 years of service or go back in a coffin. the best thing for you to do would be to willingly throw yourself into training and work your hardest and when the time for war comes battle your hardest and do not fear death on another note anyone caught leaving the castle without authorisation will be hanged as a deserter. You shall now all be sorted into battalions and you shall train with and report to your commander and there orders are absolute any trouble makers can expect a night in the dungeons or a trip to the stocks now everyone off of your carts and stand shoulder to shoulder and the commanders shall choose you and register you as a new member of the illustrious drakebane army!" echoed lord drakebane from upon his balcony. the boys on the carts were all ushered off by various knights, generals and other men of importance then the important looking men all walked up and down the line inspecting the boys occasionally pulling a boy out of the line and telling them to go stand in a group of other boys that they had selected. thiassel, rusgon and grawon also started to join in. rusgon stood in front of a short scrawny blonde boy with blue eyes "boy name, age and occupation if you please" barked rusgon in a tone that sent shivers down dukes causing the boy to start whimpering "well boy are you going to tell me or do i have to beat the information out of you" snapped rusgon before raising his hand as if he was about to backhand the boy.

"I'm aaron sir im 12 years old and my father's a fletcher i sometimes help him make his arrows" squeaked the boy causing rusgon to lower his hand back down to his side "a fletcher's boy? You should know your way around a bow then you're coming with me," stated rusgon before moving the boy to join his group which now consisted of 15 small boys none of them looking strong enough to ever become a soldier.

Thiassel walked down the line her mismatched eyes scanning the crowd of boys pulling out the odd one or two and sending them towards her group not saying a single word to the boys as she did so. After sending a boy with brown hair towards her group that was smaller than that of any other commanders or atleast thats duke thought they were. she carried on walking down the line and stopped in front of duke staring him in the eyes causing an unnatural shiver to crawl down his spine. Then all of a sudden thiassel's eyes rolled back in her head and her skin went paler than snow and she collapsed to her knees causing duke to fall down beside her trying to stop the only person who was nice to him from hurting herself and also causing several other boys to run over while the important looking men carried on their selection processes acting as if nothing was happening.

A few seconds later thiassel's eyes returned to normal and she looked at duke in a worried expression "duke, i've had a vision, you have to join my battalion and i have to talk to you later" wheezed thiassel before rising and dizzily returning to her selection process duke walked over to the group of boys not noticing any reason why thiassel would pick these boys in particular.

By the time every boy had been sorted most of the groups consisted of around 50 people each some of them bigger but thiassel's group was way smaller consisting of 20 boys making duke wonder what was happening. Grawon glared at thiassel as he saw duke in her group but he knew better than to start an argument in front of lord drakebane,"these men are now your commanders remember there names and faces you will be expected to report to them at the crack of dawn and you shall work your hardest for them until they tell you that you can stop!" lord drakebane barked from where he'd watched the selection process in his balcony. "Gentlemen if you'd be so kind as to follow me," thiassel said quietly to her group leading them towards a big brown door in the castle. Duke took one last look at the courtyard noticing rusgon and grawon smiling at him maliciously making him feel nervous before he disappeared into the dark halls of the castle.

Duke followed thiassel and the group of nervous boys in front of him some of them as young as 10 none of them older than he was they all looked scared and walked in silence none of them daring to break it. Thiassel stopped the group in front of a massive doorway with a guard either side of it holding a halberd crossed in front of the doorway crossed over the other guards blocking the entrance. "In a minute you will present yourselves in front of lord drakebane! You will kneel in front of him until he tells you otherwise and only speak when spoken to, anyone who fails me will regret it don't think for even one second that because i'm a woman i'll go easy on you because i assure you i am worse than the men," she barked in a tone that made duke scared of the seemingly easy going woman, she walked towards the guards causing them to uncross their halberds and point them upwards as the doors swung open revealing a large throne room with stained glass windows running along the walls depicting various different scenes from the bible a stairway started 3 quarters of the way into the room and led up to a platform with a big golden chair in the middle ornate charizards had been carved into the sides of the chair and either side were two similar chairs but in silver, lord drakebane the man from the balcony sat in the golden chair, duke could now see that his hair was starting to turn grey and his face was scarred from various years of battle but he still looked strong and dangerous an air of experience surrounded him. A woman with long flowing blonde hair sat next to him wearing a midnight blue gown, she smiled towards thiassel who smiled back, thiassel led the group of boys into the room all of them staying silent as they felt the duke's eyes burning into each of them thiassel reached the bottom of the stairs bowing her head before standing tall the boys all kneeled behind her apart from the 10 year old who didn't seem to understand what was going on "lord and lady drakebane, these are the men i have picked i request that the chamber be prepared for the ritual," she said glaring at the young boy. "You may stand," lord drakebane boomed none of the boys moved except duke who stood upright. The older man laughed at the response "what's wrong lads? Is this one the only one with a backbone?" he joked laughing very loudly "boy what is your name?" he asked looking at duke. "It's duke my lord," he replied feeling uncomfortable.

"Thiassel this boy is to go first for the ritual i have a good feeling about this one," the lord said loudly "that will be all," he said before walking out of a door behind his throne his wife following closely behind


End file.
